National Bank of Arizona announces $250,000 gift-match for scholarships

Hundreds of students from across Arizona gathered Jan. 30 for the Catholic Schools Week rally at the Arizona State Capitol. (Ambria Hammel/CATHOLIC SUN)

National Bank of Arizona will offer $250,000 in corporate matching gifts to leverage an additional quarter million in individual tax credit gifts to benefit low-income Catholic school students.

The match, announced Jan. 30 during the Catholic Schools Week rally at the Arizona State Capitol, applies to all first-time donors to Catholic Education Arizona, the state’s largest school tuition organization, which uses private education tax credits to enable individuals and corporations to redirect their tax dollars and create tuition scholarships. Half of the 12,000 students in K-12 diocesan schools qualify for and receive tuition aid from the organization.

“National Bank of Arizona believes in the importance of quality education, and there’s no question that Diocese of Phoenix Catholic schools deliver,” said Pete Hill, executive vice president of of the bank. “We hope our matching gift offer will incentivize those individuals who have yet to participate to get onboard with the tax credit.”

The match runs from Jan. 30-April 15, with the following terms and conditions:

It is available to first-time individual gifts of any amount, up to $1,003 (single) or $2,006 (married)

Qualified gifts will be matched dollar-for-dollar on a first-come/first-served basis up to $250,000 total

Donors may designate Catholic school(s) of their choice or give to the General Scholarship Fund

All donations received will be made available to qualified students in the 2013/14 school year

Match-funds awarded are restricted to students who meet corporate tax credit eligibility requirements

A state tax credit extension allows individuals to make a tax year 2012 contribution to Catholic Education Arizona through April 15, enabling taxpayers to wait until they calculate their taxes to determine how much of their tax liability they wish to redirect to fund scholarships. Contributions of up to $1,003 per taxpayer ($2,006 for married filers) can be taken as a dollar-for-dollar credit against what the taxpayer would otherwise pay the state.

The Catholic Sun is the official source of news for the Diocese of Phoenix. We share in the mission of evangelizing the Catholic faithful by providing news, information, education, a forum for discussion and guidance in matters of faith, morals and spiritual life.

3 COMMENTS

We cannot thank National Bank of Arizona enough for offering another matching gift opportunity–this one worth a quarter million dollars–to help us attract new s to our program. Catholic schools provide a great value to our students, families, Church and society, and also save taxpayers millions of dollars annually on the cost of educating our youth. NBAZs efforts will only further benefit these same stakeholders. Thank you NBAZ!

I have seen the offer of National Bank of Arizona for 250,000 dollars (here) and 400,000 dollars (in our church bulletin) of matching funds for Catholic Education tax credit dollars, but I see nothing of how we are to apply for those matching funds. How do we go about seeing that our dollars donated to Catholic Education Arizona will indeed be part of this matching fund?

Thank you for the note, Connie. The $250,000 match you are inquiring about is from LAST YEAR (see the article here is dated Jan 31, 2013). The $400,000 match recently announced is for THIS YEAR, through April 15, 2014. If you are a first-time contributor to Catholic Education Arizona, your gift will be identified as eligible for the match–there is nothing you need to do other than to send your gift in by mail, web or phone. Call our office with any questions: 602-218-6542. Thank you.

The Catholic Sun, as the official source of news for the Diocese of Phoenix, shares in the mission of evangelizing the Catholic faithful, under the direction of the bishop, by providing news, information, education, a forum for discussion and guidance in matters of faith, morals and spiritual life.